To the Line of Fire!: Mexican Texans and World War I

by José A. Ramírez

Overview

Winner of the 2009 Robert A. Calvert Prize

In January 1917, German foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann sent a telegram to Germany’s Mexican ambassador, authorizing the offer of U.S. territory in exchange for Mexico’s alliance with Germany in the Great War.

After the interception of this communication, U.S. intelligence intensified surveillance of the Mexican American community in Texas and elsewhere, vigilant for signs of subversive activity. Yet, even as this was transpiring, thousands of Tejanos (Mexican Texans) were serving in the American military during the war, with many other citizens of Mexican origin contributing to home front efforts.

As author José A. Ramírez demonstrates in To the Line of Fire!, the events of World War I and its aftermath would decisively transform the Tejano community, as war-hardened veterans returned with new, broadened perspectives. They led their people in opposing prejudice and discrimination, founding several civil rights groups and eventually merging them into the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the largest and oldest surviving Hispanic civil rights organization in the United States.

Ramírez also shows the diversity of reaction to the war on the part of the Tejano community: While some called enthusiastically for full participation in the war effort, others reacted coolly, or only out of fear of reprisal.

Scholarly and general readers in Texas history, military history, and Mexican American studies will be richly rewarded by reading To the Line of Fire!

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781603441360
Publisher:	Texas A&M University Press
Publication date:	10/05/2009
Series:	C. A. Brannen Series , #11
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

José A. Ramírez holds a Ph.D. in History from Southern Methodist University. He lives in his native Laredo, where he teaches history at Laredo Community College.

Editorial Reviews

"José A. Ramírez's To the Line of Fire! outstandingly contributes to Mexican American history with a 'new military history approach,' in which 'the home front in Texas appears just as prominently as the battlefields of France. . .' The book has very few imperfections. . . To the Line of Fire! is a groundbreaking book on a previously unknown facet of the Mexican American experience. Ramírez has creatively opened up a new topic of study in the field." - Carlos Kevin Blanton, Western Historical Quarterly

Western Historical Quarterly - Carlos Kevin Blanton

"Jose A. Ramirez has produced a wonderful new addition to Mexican-American scholarship. This short book offers enlightenment to readers about the little known experience of Mexican American soldiers from Texas during World War I. . . Through it all he provides a compelling and convincing argument that WWI indeed  contributed mightily to a sense of Americanism among Tejanos and fed into a nascent but growing civil rights movement. . . Drawing from military records, Congressional documents, personal interviews, as well as relevant secondary literature, Ramirez has made an important contribution to our knowledge of the role of Tejanos in WWI. . . Military historians, Mexican American scholars, and all levels of students as well as the general public will benefit from reading this fine work that finally tells us, in depth, about the contributions of Tejanos in the first World War." - Anthony Quiroz, Military History of the West

Military History of the West - Anthony Quiroz

"An all-embracing coverage of Mexican Americans during World War I. . . ." -Arnoldo De León, Angelo State University

Angelo State University - Arnoldo De León

"An all-embracing coverage of Mexican Americans during World War I. . . ." -Arnoldo De León, Angelo State University

Angelo State University - Arnoldo De Leon

"José A. Ramírez's To the Line of Fire! outstandingly contributes to Mexican American history with a 'new military history approach,' in which 'the home front in Texas appears just as prominently as the battlefields of France. . .' The book has very few imperfections. . . To the Line of Fire! is a groundbreaking book on a previously unknown facet of the Mexican American experience. Ramírez has creatively opened up a new topic of study in the field." - Carlos Kevin Blanton, Western Historical Quarterly

— Carlos Kevin Blanton

Western Historical Quarterly

"Jose A. Ramirez has produced a wonderful new addition to Mexican-American scholarship. This short book offers enlightenment to readers about the little known experience of Mexican American soldiers from Texas during World War I. . . Through it all he provides a compelling and convincing argument that WWI indeed contributed mightily to a sense of Americanism among Tejanos and fed into a nascent but growing civil rights movement. . . Drawing from military records, Congressional documents, personal interviews, as well as relevant secondary literature, Ramirez has made an important contribution to our knowledge of the role of Tejanos in WWI. . . Military historians, Mexican American scholars, and all levels of students as well as the general public will benefit from reading this fine work that finally tells us, in depth, about the contributions of Tejanos in the first World War." - Anthony Quiroz, Military History of the West

— Anthony Quiroz

Military History of the West

"An all-embracing coverage of Mexican Americans during World War I. . . ." -Arnoldo De León, Angelo State University

— Arnoldo De Le�n

Angelo State University